Wednesday, July 13, 2005

NCERT: Prithviraj coward, Jaichand hero

jul 13th

but of course, how else do you expect re-stalinization of the textbooks to work? have to tell indian children that their ancestors suck big time.

so that the future chinese invasion will be welcomed as something to put the indians out of their misery. that will bring the millennium of course, the worker's paradise, as they have in hellholes like daqing, and as described in such vivid detail in 'the survey of chinese peasantry'.

just as kind muslims tried so hard to 'save' indians by converting their ancestors -- but alas, were foiled by wily hindus hanging on to their darned free-thinking. and just as kind christians are doing so vigorously these days.

Lucknow, July 12: "Prithviraj Chauhan was a coward who ran away to save his life during the second battle of Tarain with Mohammad Ghauri."

"Jaichand (generally believed to be a traitor) was, in fact a 'hero' who gave up his life while fighting the forces of Ghauri."

This is the "new" history that students of Class 11 will learn under the CBSE and ICSE courses from this academic session. The revised history book, Medieval India History, published by NCERT, demolishes old beliefs and tramples over heroes of history.

Edited by Prof. Satish Chandra, the fifth chapter of the book on Medieval History clearly states that Prithviraj Chauhan tried to run away from the battle, but was taken prisoner. The book says that when Prithviraj accepted the supremacy of Mohammad Ghauri, the latter allowed him to continue as ruler of Ajmer. Prithviraj was later killed on charges of treason, according to the book, which goes on to say that Jaichand's valour was unmatched and that he was killed while fighting the forces of Ghauri in Kannauj.

History, till now, had taught that Jaichand was a coward and a traitor who first betrayed Prithviraj Chauhan, and then was drowned while trying to flee the forces of Ghauri (History of Rajasthan, page 156).

The NCERT history book also demolishes the belief that the main cause of bitterness between Prithviraj and Jaichand was the fact that the latter's daughter Sanyogita had eloped with Prithviraj and that Jaichand never forgave them. According to the new book, there were major political differences between the two kings and Sanyogita was not part of it.

While the NCERT book throws new light on Prithviraj Chauhan and Jaichand, the Class 11 book Ancient India History, written by Prof. Ram Sharan Sharma, discards the presence of Lord Krishna during the Mahabharata. The book says, "Although Krishna plays an important role in the Mahabharata, inscriptions and sculptural pieces found in Mathura dating back to 200 BC and 300 AD do not attest to his presence. Because of this, ideas of an epic age based on the Ramayana and Mahabharata have to be discarded."

On Ayodhya, the book says, "Archaeological evidence should be considered far more important than long family trees given in the Puranas because Puranic tradition can be used to date Ram of Ayodhya to 2,000 BC, but diggings and extensive exploration in Ayodhya do not show any settlement of the time."

The "new theories" being propounded in these history books have expectedly created controversy Uttar Pradesh. While the BJP is up in arms over references to Ayodhya and the Mahabharata, caste organisations are livid about "the attempt to demolish the aura of Prithviraj Chauhan".

State BJP president Kesri Nath Tripathi said the manner in which history was being distorted by the UPA government was nothing short of "blasphemy". He said he had already apprised the BJP leadership about the issue and would be going to Delhi shortly to finalise the party's strategy on the issue.

Meanwhile, Mr R.K. Singh "Vishven", general secretary of the Akhil Bhartiya Kshatriya Mahasabha, has announced an agitation against the efforts of Central government to "discredit" Prithviraj Chauhan. "Prithviraj Chauhan is a kshatriya hero and we will never tolerate any attempt to rip off his aura and image," Mr Singh said.

16 comments:

SDSV
said...

Given that we cannot trust History books from NCERT, why can't the true, unbiased Historians do the following:

Write the unbiased, accurate version and host it on the net. Also, allow people to download, copy and distribute it for free. Now, if a group of volunteers translates these into local languages and distribute it widely then the NCERT jokers will be fully exposed . This of course requires monetary sacrifice and investment of time especially by the authors. But if sacrifices are not made then all this complaining will be just bellyaching - pure and simple.

Chandravardai is the good friend of prithvi so he writes many fake stories for Prithvi however the history is totally differnt, Prithviraj was the uncle(Cousin brother) of Jaichand and Sanyogita was her nephew and he married her that is very wrong thing.......

I certainly don’t subscribe to excessive glorification of defaming of historical figures. That includes both Prithviraj and Jaichand. None was a villain or a perfect superhero.I also understand that the worse than nanny-style (no offense to nanny) distorted history that the Govt feeds us in textbooks is only worth trashing.But lets look at the facts objectively and separate grain from chaff.

1. PrithviRaj-Sanyogita love affair,2 Jaichand’s vengeance and3. The 17 defeats to Ghori etcare all good bed time stories to entertain ourselves with, but do not stand any historical scrutiny.All three are mentioned only in the heavily inaccurate and scholarly challenged poem ‘PrithviRaj Raso’ which (among many goof ups) mentions a completely wrong name even for PR’s mother.There is no mention of these in :a) Prithviraja Prabandhab) Hammir MahaKavyac) Prabandha Kosad) PrithviRaj Vijayae) Viruddhavidhi-vidhvamsa

** PrithviRaj-Sanyogita love affair :-Never happened. Battle Tarain-I was fought in early 1191, for thirteen months since then Prithviraj was busy in the siege of Sarhind (early 1192) central Punjab; Tarain II was fought barely a few months later.In the midst of all this, when did Prithviraj have the time to correspond with a princess, admit his love to her, and make arrangements to carry her away from Kannauj that was 400 miles away in the south east?Whats more ! The time given for this love affair is 1175 AD and Ghori – PrithviRaj battles took place at 1191-92.It is odd to imagine that a man would be so obsessed with his woman even after 17 yrs that it would lead to his fall or that her father would be so mad even after 17 yrs that he would collude with enemies.

** Jaichand’s vengeance :-The kingdoms of Ajmer and Kannauj did not have a common border, fought no battles.As per the inscriptions, during PR-Ghori battles Jayachandra was fighting against the Sena ruler (LakshmanaSena) in the region of Bihar, far in the east.Raso states that after the first Battle of Tarain Prithviraj fell in love with, carried away, and married Sanyogita, daughter of Jaychand Rathor of Kannuaj.According to contemporary literature, inscriptions and coins the rulers of Kannauj were Gadhavals. The Rathors of Badaun were their tributaries.There is no record of a conflict between Ajmer and Kannauj for the simple reason that they did not have a common border.

** The 17 defeats to Ghori :-Hammir Mahakavya states only 7 border skirmishes and 2 wars after Ghori had expanded his territory upto Ajmer Kingdom’s border.There is still controversy on the fate of PR and Ghori after Tarain-II. None of the versions has yet been established irrefutably.

While we rue the distortion in our history and attack the concoted stories, this is another such instance where drama and imagination has been swallowed as is.Now, to the otherwise trained memory of ours, the truth does sound stranger that fiction in such cases doesn’t it ? :)

Prithviraj was an idiot. He got the chance in the first battle of Tarain when Ghori was defeated. He let him escape. The enemy came back stronger and defeated him in the next battle in Tarain. The fool who lost the war was dragged to Afghanistan in chains, blinded and killed mercilessly. Compare this to what Krishna tells Arjuna "you get only one golden chance" kill your enemy otherwise he will kill you. Anyway the fool's decision of leaving Ghori unscathed opened the gates to the Muslim invaders to conquer the whole of India.

Few things r mentioned & verified in all the written books till date about prithviraj chauhan or relating him..1.sanyogita-prithviraj love affair*Conclusion:only a nice hearted person can fall in love such a way & endangered his life to elope sanyogita from thn then hr almighty father's kannauj kingdom.he was such brave and powerful that jaichand cudnt stop him

2.1191-tarain 1 battle-whn gori begged fr hs life PRC spared his life*Conclusion:he was kind hearted and magnanimous king.gori may have begged on behalf of girl's family of girl's people.

3.he,at the age of 13 took the full charge of Delhi & Ajmer & started winning & stretching his territories*Conclusion:he was great warrior ,brave,courageous,powerful,victorios.Which makes for common people who criticizes him,hard to accept

4.his life span was short 1166-1192(26 yrs)*Conclusion-he fell in love in teen ageWith full passion which was also a immature age effect otherwise who king endangers his life fr love